Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Now I would be the last brotha' to constantly harp on the ignorance of a certain religious right member by the name of Peter LaBarbera . . . .

Oh who am I kidding? Other than exposing the lies of religious right groups, I live for demonstrating just how clueless he is.

I mentioned twice today I have been having ongoing email conversation with LaBarbera (who, according to his own words, has spent over a decade tracking the so-called gay agenda) on his claims about the lgbt community.

We tend to go back and forth because we both refuse to give an inch. There have been, however, many times when LaBarbera has shown himself to be a complete ignoramous.

Our original email conversation was about Anita Bryant. This morning, it drifted to the African-American community and sexual orientation. LaBarbera continued to push the broken record talking point about not being able to choose race while being able to choose sexual orientation.

I pointed out a parallel between how light-skinned black folks tried to pass for white years ago to how some gays try to pass as heterosexuals. This was my exact comment:

I prefer to say that just as some blacks have tried to pass as white, some gays try to pass as straight - both of these actions have negative consequences.

This was LaBarbera's answer to me:

Alvin, you are a twit . . . That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read. You CANNOT become ex-Black. Period. You can change your sexual behavior.

Seems to me that if LaBarbera wants to be the best friend of the black community, he should be up on black history a little bit.

Some light-skinned African-Americans in the past did try to pass as white because of the racial climate. The ability to pass for white kept them free from violence and made available to them certain opportunities usually not given to African-Americans.

However, being exposed could have meant several things, from violence to loss of home or job to complete rejection from both communities.

And then there were the feelings of guilt and self-hatred felt by many of those who did successfully pass.

Unfortunately while blacks trying to pass as white is a nonexistent occurrence in this country now, gays trying to pass as heterosexuals is still an unfortunate happening.

The negative consequences are the same - the possibility of violence or rejection, the self-hate, and the guilt.

It doesn't matter if we are talking sexual orientation or color. When you feel that you have to hide your true self, it means nothing but trouble.

It's a shame that folks like LaBarbera can't see this simple parallel. And it's an even bigger shame that they do what they can to keep others from seeing it also.

I'm still having those email conversations with our friend, Peter LaBarbera. However, I don't think our exchange is going well for him. He called me a "twit." I'm offended. He called Pam Spaulding and Jeremy Hooper much worse.

Obama declares June 'LGBT Pride Month'- Okay I know I'm going to catch a bit of hell for being so late on this. Other blogs covered this yesterday. However, my blog is different. I'm focusing on the issue from the lying perspective of One News Now. The comments are a hoot!

I've been having a very interesting email exchange with Peter LaBarbera regarding his stigmatization of the lgbt community.

For LaBarbera, every lie he tells is justifiable because of his belief that gay men have "health risks" greater than that of heterosexuals. In fact, it's something he likes to highlight every chance he gets:

“Barack Obama’s homosexual agenda is beginning to take shape – but he has no election mandate to impose GLSEN’s radical vision of celebrating homosexuality, bisexuality and gender confusion (transsexuality) in U.S. schools,” LaBarbera said. “Anti-religious bigots should not be setting policy for schools — and promoting dangerous sex and gender identities to youth is the antithesis of ‘safety.’ (Men who have sex with other men (MSM) suffer from much higher rates of sexual diseases – including anal cancer, HIV, syphilis, and gonorrhea — than non-MSMs.)

LaBarbera also argues that many liberal school districts teach false facts about AIDS. He says they imply that everyone is at equal risk for contracting the disease -- even though in 2005 71 percent of U.S. male AIDS cases involved homosexuals. He contends that many American young people are not being informed about other health risks associated with homosexuality either -- such as increased infections of the Hepatitis B or C virus and the herpes virus. "We have all this evidence out there that homosexual behavior is dangerous," the activist point out, "and yet our politically correct elites are promoting gay identity" to teens and children.

And he is not the only one to assert this "gays are dangerous because of their behavior" claim:

If there was ever a clarion call for our entire society to say with one united voice that homosexual behavior is a danger to health and should be discouraged at all costs, this is it. We've found one voice as a society with regard to drug use and drunk driving; it's time we find it with regard to homosexual behavior. - Bryan Fischer

In fact, multiple studies have established that homosexual conduct, especially among males, is considerably more hazardous to one’s health than a lifetime of chain smoking. - Matt Barber

The "homosexuality is a health risk" factoid is a popular talking point in religious right circles. It stems from manipulating legitimate medical information regarding disease and the lgbt community. Rather than go into detail about just how this information is manipulated, I'm going to take another route.

I found this video on youtube. I dare anyone to tell me the difference between it and the nonsense about the supposed "health risks of homosexuality" factoid pushed by the religious right:

About Me

Alvin McEwen is 46-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, The Washington Post, Raw Story, The Advocate, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Melissa Harris-Perry, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Washington Blade, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,Justice For All, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org. He is a present contributor to the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post,
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a three-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.